TAKE ME DOWN SAINT PETER

Previously published in Cajun Mutt Press and Impspired.

TAKE ME DOWN SAINT PETER

I called but no one was home.

She’s like a ’74 Chevy on concrete blocks.

A chained hound who howls in the yard.

A torn orange flag ripped by rain.

**

Shit, that was from the day at the Syracuse Fair,

where cotton candy tastes like Saturday afternoon.

Nothin’ to show but a Coney dog and busted lip

for talkin’ too loud at the Howard Street homeboys.

Beneath the statue of Save Me Now Saint Peter,

behind the burned out ice cream stand.

Over near the shoreline, just south of Salt Lake.

Wildin’ out and shoutin’,

Salt for my Cuervo

Salt for my nuts

Salt taste between her legs

**

Romeo and Juliet?

Nah, Thorogood and the Destroyers.

**

Damn, my hoodie don’t cover my face.

Damn, life been comin’ hard at me.

**

I’m rockin’ the Amtrak headed south.

Over rails made from cobblestone and broken bone.

Straight to New York City.

Straight into sin.

I pray for her and

Saint Peter to come and

take me down.

**

But my dreams are cotton candy.

I have salt in my veins.